The new division will focus on services such as gas pipeline construction, gas leak repair, design services and employee training. Donco LLC, Chairwoman and CEO, Candice Fowler, said the company decided to start the new division after realizing it was an area where local options and expertise were in short supply. They plan to provide more jobs for local contract workers and help keep construction dollars in the Metro East and St. Louis.

“We recognized that there are hardly any contractors in our immediate region offering gas construction services,” said Fowler. “We brought in a gas industry expert, Ed Scott, who worked to develop qualifications, best practices and training videos used by the American Gas Association (AGA) and Midwest Energy Association (MEA) today. Expanding our services to fill that gap made sense to us. Not only are we going to help businesses get more jobs done locally, our experts will also be able to ensure that best practices and safety standards are being met.”

Gas Operations Superintendent Ed Scott has spent 45 years working in the gas construction industry. Over that time, he has worked in every position from an entry level service laborer, journeyman, foreman and eventually administrator who trains others on gas construction safety practices. Scott will lead a team of other highly trained gas construction services professionals with a wide range of expertise.

“What makes our gas division so unique is that we offer turnkey solutions for large construction projects. Not only will we design and electronically map the project through Donco’s Utility Design Services company, we will also build it with well trained, local workers,” said Scott. “Companies will not only be able to spend less money transporting equipment and workers in from out of state, they’ll have the benefit of dealing with just one company for projects, rather than several.”